October 31, 2003 - 11:06 p.m.
My boys are quickly rising in the ranks to join Bigfoot, the Loch Ness Monster, and the Abominable Snowman.
They are becoming impossible to photograph.
Tonight we met with our realtor at our new home, received our keys and garage door openers, and walked through the house to make sure everything was in order and nothing was damaged on the way out. One of the garage remotes has a dead battery, the porch light was burnt out, and we can't find the switch to turn on the gas fireplace. Other than that - peachy.
We brought the boys' halloween costumes - Tigger for Zachary and Eeyore for Marcus. We had a jack o lantern carved at Casa FoxPhotog and a plastic cauldron full of candy for trick or treaters. The lack of a front porch light was an issue, however. We had to settle for a glowstick in the cauldron and left the lot for passing costumed kids while we walked around our new neighborhood with the boys and Mrs. FoxPhotog (in rabbit ears) who brought Regan - dressed as Piglet.
They were very cute. I wish I had good pictures. Lots of images of backs and feet - if they hadn't left the frame entirely by the time the shutter snapped. They were wound up. Something about an empty house just incites little ones to run wild.
Zachary did much better this year. He knew to say "trick or treat" and understood (after a reminder) that he was not supposed to go into other people's houses. Regan and Marcus took turns at being shy and riding in the wagon. Mostly, Marcus liked to walk. He usually gets confined to a stroller so this opportunity was just too good too miss. While Zack happily bounded from porch to porch, Marcus stuck determinedly to the sidewalk, marching along. He had no desire to climb porch steps. He was friendly to the people we passed, delighted to be walking along like all the other children. Eventually, however, he became too tired to keep up and was caught in the frustrating loop of lagging behind, asking me to carry him, catching up, and then wanting to walk again.
We returned, footsore for so short a distance, and tried to take more pictures. The only way to keep the children still was for Shannon and me to sit with them - a trick I ought to try at Sears next week. I made the mistake of giving Marcus a piece of chocolate so our Eeyore had a goatee.
We were all close to exhausted - except Zack. He did not want to take off his Tigger costume and tried twice to get Marcus back into his Eeyore outfit. I wished we had the time, stamina, and furniture in our house to take him back out for another round. He was having such a wonderful time, I wanted to indulge him a little longer. But Marcus was crying to sleep, Mike and I were hungry, and there was still packing to do for Crown tomorrow. We had to go.
